It is known that, in particular, because their aerodynamic configuration is optimised for their cruising speed, aircraft often exhibit a high landing speed which assumes that a significant deceleration (or braking) will be implemented during the rolling of the plane on the landing runway after landing. This braking is effected, in particular, by brakes actuated by brake pedals, acting on the wheels of the main landing gear of the aircraft, as well as by auxiliary devices such as air-brakes or thrust reversers for providing an additional braking in order not to overuse the wheels' brakes and to shorten the landing distance.
It is known that braking on landing, performed by the brakes, causes heating of the wheels and said heating requires a waiting period for the aircraft, before a next flight, so as to allow the wheels to cool down. For the purposes of the invention, the minimum waiting period for the aircraft, required in order to allow the wheels of said aircraft to cool down following heating generated by braking upon landing, before undertaking a further flight, is termed the turnaround time.
The deceleration of an aircraft is ordered either manually and directly by the pilot using, in particular, the brake pedals, or via an automatic braking system which controls a fixed deceleration that is predetermined by the pilot before landing. An automatically-controlled deceleration device for an aircraft in the rolling phase is known through documents FR-2,817,979 and FR-2,857,468.
Furthermore, it is known that thrust reversers, which can be used as auxiliary braking devices, are mounted on the engines of the aircraft. The purpose of such thrust reversers is to direct the thrust, exerted by the engine on which they are installed, ahead in order to slow down the aircraft while rolling along the ground. The normal braking procedure implemented by such thrust reversers consists of extending said reversers once the aircraft is on the ground, then increasing the speed of the engine after the wheels have touched down on the ground, to recreate thrust (the engine being practically at idle upon the landing phase) which will then be directed ahead so as to brake the aircraft.